Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner
Being here
night after
endless night
watching the
moon change
phases within
the dead eyes
of the drinkers
thinking of the
loneliness of
the boundless
track that
spins by in
my head as I
run from place
to place
ringing sales
touching bottles
rinsing glasses
making drinks
as if I were
some kind of
dread machine
as if tomorrow
I wouldn’t
be ready
to run again
into those
same dead eyes
Alan Catlin worked for the better part of 34 years in his unchosen profession as a barman in and around the greater Albany, NY area. He has published dozens of chapbooks and full-length books focusing on his work and the people he met while laboring in the trenches of bar warfare.
